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Monthly Archives: April 2013

The design is Bunch of Hearts by Hang to Dry. I hope you like their designs as much as I do because I have bought a lot of them and I am sure they will keep popping up on my blog! This particular design, using tulle and an unconventional applique process, was outside of my previous experience but I carefully studied the process photos they have posted online and came up with this.

Stitch out the hearts.

Cut them out.

Arrange them on shirt.

Cut off the bottom points to help keep down the bulk of the extra tulle when attaching them.

Attach the hearts.

Cut out the top of the hearts and fluff!

I think I did it right. Maybe? I really wish I had larger then a 4″ x 4″ embroidery area for a bigger impact. Sigh… one day. They are cute none the less and the girls love to wear them!

In past years about this time, I was always in a frenzy. A happy plant-buying frenzy. As soon as it warmed up and the flowers put on their show, my time was spent desperately trying to get the ones I bought the last weekend in the ground so I could justify buying new ones in the coming weekend. Our yard is now in full bloom so I should be out there digging right now!

But for some reason I have yet to make a trip to the local nursery. I have some gardening plans in my head but when I have free time I find myself doing something that has to do with sewing instead. I haven’t decided if this is good or bad. I am a little sad because I really love gardening and I wish I could get a bit of that back. But today when I had free time, I found myself in the fabric section… again.

I have to say the happiness that buying new fabric brings me is pretty equivalent to the happiness that gardening brings me. I just get less sunshine.

I am going to assume some of you love to look at pretty fabrics too. So here you go. My new fabric acquisitions…

I have a really cute pair of toddler girl knit pants that have been sitting around for a year. There is only one lonely pair and I have two cute little girls who would love to wear them! I would like to eventually make a second pair in a different color knit but I have put that project off for another day.

Doodles – Flower Toss Turquois

In the meantime, I already had some really cute corduroy fabric I picked up from JoAnns that I wanted to make into pants for the girls.

I decided that since I will eventually need a pattern for the second pair of knit pants, I would go ahead and try to make one. Then, I could use it for the corduroy pants as well. I had my first experience making a pattern with the knit shirts. It was not exactly easy but since I had more experience making pants, I figured I could handle it. Actually, it turned out to be pretty simple.

First, I traced one of the legs (not including the ruffle) on to a large piece of paper and then added my seam allowance.

Then I measured the length and width of the ruffle, added in the seam allowance, and wrote those dimensions on my pattern. I did not do a pattern for them because they are basically large rectangles. Notice I wrote them out incorrectly at first. I forgot to double up the length measurement so they could go all the way around the leg! Very important for pants to actually enclose the leg, I think. 😉 Luckily, I caught it before I cut!

Then, I laid out and traced my pattern on the fabric while trying to match up the lines of flowers on the fabric. I knew the large flowers would never match up at the seams but I thought it would be less distracting if the lines of flowers did.

Then, I sewed them together pretty much the same way I did these pants. Except this time, I added the ruffle.

In the end, I failed miserably at trying to match up the design because the fabric’s pattern is actually pretty complicated. I wasted an extra yard of fabric doing this but I learned a valuable lesson, some fabrics just don’t need to line up. I think they turned out pretty cute despite it!

Oh, and one last thing… I just couldn’t help myself and made some shirts to match!

Just sharing some big boy pants I made for Calder. As usual, I used the pants tutorial from MADE. I was obviously inspired by her striped pants. I love them and I need more striped fabrics NOW!!!

I tried really hard to keep those lines straight! Can you find the seam in the photo below?

Here are a few more photos just for fun!

I wish I could remember exactly what he was telling me here!

Anything, even cereal bars, can be an airplane if you just use your imagination!

I also made this cute little plaid pair too. I have found that her pattern is a little too low rise on my kids so I added an extra inch to the top on this pair. Hopefully, there will be no more diapers peeking out when he bends over!

I really had fun with the lining of the pockets. It shows along the edge but I consider it a happy accident. I want to do piping all around them on the next pair!

It is getting warmer every day. It has already been in the 80’s quite a bit and cold days are over here in San Antonio so pants might go on hold for awhile. I see lots of pairs of pint-sized shorts in my future though!